CSR Food for Thought: Fight Poverty, Build Your Bottom Line

The CSR Food for Thought series is a weekly roundup of relevant news from around the Web, presented to you in one bite-sized blog post. Follow us on Twitter for CSR news and trends throughout the week: @VM_Solutions.

We can all agree that there’s a powerful moral and practical case for ending poverty. But there is also a compelling business case. In the fourth in a six-part series on the fight against global poverty, Mal Warwick shares five factors that show how serving the world’s “bottom billions” can be good for your company’s bottom line.

According to the recently released 2013 Cone Communications Social Impact Study, multicultural consumers (particularly Hispanics and African Americans) are driving forces behind the evolution of cause to more robust social impact. Learn more about these critical stakeholders, including expert POVs and tips for marketers, in Cone’s downloadable study.

Instead of turning to nonprofits, NGOs and governments to solve society’s biggest problems, business school professor Michael Porter wants you to hear his case in this TED talk for letting business try to solve massive problems like climate change and access to water. Why? Because when business solves a problem, it makes a profit – which lets that solution grow.

Global Impact just released the results of a research report, “Giving Beyond Borders: A Study of Global Giving by U.S. Corporations,” at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center’s (BCLC) annual corporate social responsibility conference. The study examines factors that influence corporations in their decisions to invest in projects, organizations and communities outside the United States, and the results suggest that companies see global philanthropy not only as charitable, but as a smart business investment.